Economy (Draft)

     The "Earth Bank System" is essentially an idea for a new global economy that would tie into a new global government. The basic idea is that rather than politicians, bankers, or CEO's calling the shots, environmental scientists would be the humans with the most authority. The main goal is to devise a global government that gets its wealth not from taxes, but directly from the Earth itself.

     This could be done in roughly 6 steps:

     Step 1. Form a worldwide committee of environmental scientists. 

     I'm not sure how many scientists this would take but I figure the more the better, and from as many regions of the world as possible. All aspects of environmental science would need to be represented here, from the oceans to the skies and everything in between.

    Step 2. Conduct a massive survey of Earth's resources.

     The scientists would collect data on all the known resources of the world; everything from iron, oil, and lumber, to fish, fresh water, and soil. Once accounted for, these resources could be listed on the Earth Map System to give common citizens a useful visual of just how much of what resource is available and where it's being shipped.

     Step 3. Determine what is sustainable.

     Once all the known resources are accounted for, it would be time to determine which ones can be used sustainably, and at what rate. Anything that can't be used safely will be put into some kind of "emergency reserve," and anything else can be sold on the market.

     Step 4. Form the global economy.

     The monitoring of resources would be part of the economic branch of the global government, but there will also need to be a branch for making and enforcing laws, and a branch for overseeing society itself. Here is an overview of these three branches:

     Economic:
          -scientifically monitor resources to ensure sustainability
          -determine the price of usable resources

     Step 5. Start initial money.

     This one is going to be tricky. A lot of math is going to need to be done by economic experts to figure it all out, but we should more or less be able to create a new global dollar that people could trade in their local currencies for. Local currencies wouldn't need to go away, but this global dollar (or Unit, or Credit) would be the backbone that all other currencies are compared to. This currency would essentially still be fiat money, but it would come from the global government and be based on the total wealth of the planet. In other words, the government would "own" and regulate the actual resources, and therefore have all the wealth. (This means taxes would probably be irrelevant.) This way money would just be a tool to make trades easier, and would no longer be the most valuable "resource" on the planet.
     When things get converted people who were formerly dirt poor will probably be given more than they had, and there will be no room for the ultra rich in this new society, so they will likely receive less. Overall, it should at least be fairly close for most people. It seems likely that local alternative currencies could co-exist with the "global dollar," or perhaps there wouldn't be a global dollar at all and all the local currencies would be tied to the "Earth Bank System" through some kind of exchange program. Either way, step 5 is all about converting the economy over to the new system, however it is done.

     Step 6. Regulate harvest and trade; maintain a happy society.

     At this point the new government would be installed with the new economy up and running. The last step is an ongoing one: to patch up issues as they occur and keep everything running smoothly. It's important to note, a system based on science like this doesn't sound very democratic at first, but with the flow of money so closely controlled and monitored the idea of "voting with your dollars" would be even more valid. Citizens would earn money by doing things productive to society. More difficult jobs would earn more, and citizens could use their excess money to directly invest in programs they support, not to mention all the smaller lifestyle purchases like food, media, and home goods.

     There are obviously a few huge barriers between the world we live in today and this future world led by environmental science, but if we are to succeed as a global society we will need some form of leadership to unify us as a species. Science gives us an unbiased way to interpret the laws of nature, and basing the laws of society on the laws of nature is probably the only way to be fair to all the different cultures on Earth. There is still a hell of a lot of planning that would need to be done before any of this could be enacted, but hopefully this outline has given a glimpse of what is possible.

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